Claire's Reviews > The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany

Complete and accessible. This book starts with Hitler's birth through his time as a vagabond on the streets of Vienna until his death in 1945. Shirer, a consummate journalist and documentarian, takes us through all of the intrigues and shifting political, social and economic landscapes as Hitler came on the scene and gained a foothold in a post war, economically and spiritually depressed Germany that was ripe for his brand of proud, resentful, indignant, anti-Semitic, anti-communist fury.

Presented in full detail from the captured German documents, Nuremberg transcripts and eye and ear witness accounts, one feels swept along as an invisible witness to the plotting and crafting and the eager reception of lies and propaganda promoting "racial purity", oppression by European nations, communist threat and control and ruination from Europe's Jewry.

Though quite a long read, it is not turgid and gives insights of inter-Nazi relationships, communications between Axis and Allied nations as well as the goings on in those that fell into neither camp by choice or lack of opportunity. Fascinating overall.